


Little Rosa

by neurobeing



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Birth, Doesn't follow the Nikolai series, F/M, Fluff, Minor Original Character(s), Post-Book 2: Crooked Kingdom, Pregnancy, sorry but I haven't read it yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:33:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27211996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neurobeing/pseuds/neurobeing
Summary: Years after Crooked Kingdom, Nina and Matthias live in a village on the border of Ravka and Fjerda. This recounts the tale of when their first child is born.
Relationships: Matthias Helvar/Nina Zenik
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	Little Rosa

It was January, the coldest month in Fjerda. That year, the wind and snow were particularly brutal. Feet of snow frozen to ice often barricaded them in their house, forcing them to spend days inside. Nina lay in bed, unable to sleep due to the discomfort that comes with being nine months pregnant, and listened to the wind howl. She turned her head to the window beside her, there was no light. Outside was pitch black, she couldn't even see the thick snowflakes that fell from the sky and covered the icy ground. 

Not that she minded the cold anymore. When she and Matthias had first decided to build a cabin on the border of Fjerda and Ravka, Nina had a pit of nervousness in her stomach that was usually never there. They decided to live on the border because it was the divide between their homelands. The hate between Fjerda and Ravka had eased in the last year, but the _druskelle_ still raged on and the Grisha were still unjustly murdered. Progress was made. Matthias and Nina had built the village they lived in. It became a safe space for both Fjerdans and Ravkans. It was small, yes, no more than thirty people. But Nina hoped it would grow. She hoped it would become the way of life for all Ravkans and Fjerdans in the far future. 

Yet, Nina and Matthias had made progress, slow, but she hoped the bun in her oven would continue on with their parent's movement.

The fire roared in their bedroom, but it wasn't the only thing keeping Nina warm, as there was the body of a big, blond, ex-witchhunter curled up next to her. Nina turned from the window to admire Matthias. He had grown his hair out again: straight, collar bone length, blond hair. Nina loved it. He had a few new scars that lived on his pale skin that developed in the past few years.

Scars.

She thought of Ketterdam. Of Kaz Brekker and his Crows. The most scarred people Nina had ever met. 

She thought of when Matthias was shot. The blood--there was so much blood. She had thought Matthias would die, there on the streets of a foreign country, in her arms. But he had not. He survived, just barely. And Nina had thanked the Saints and Djel and every other God and Angel she could think of. Her Matthias had lived. 

The Crows visited sometimes. Inej would sail The Wraith and stop in Ravka to murder human traffickers, and would never fail to visit the small village that Nina and Matthias had built from the ground up. Sometimes she brought Kaz, who was rarely ever a delight to be around, but Nina loved seeing him nevertheless. 

She wondered how her sixteen-year-old self would react if she told herself that she married a Druskelle and settled down with him. Sixteen-year-old Nina would have hit twenty-three-year-old Nina over the head, most likely. 

She thought of those cold, cold nights in Fjerda, all those years ago, when she had first _really_ met Matthias. All the bickering and fighting and nasty comments and insults and stolen glances. They had saved each others lives a million times in those short three weeks in the Fjerdan wild. 

Nina was pulled out of her memory when she felt a wetness between her legs. 

Her first thought was that she peed herself.

She propped herself up onto pillows and threw the covers back. Surely enough, her water had broken. Matthias' blue eyes popped open at Nina's movements.

"What is it?" 

"Baby," Nina said. 

Matthias was instantly out of bed, throwing on a thick fur coat. "I will get the neighbors. Stay in bed."

"Like I'm going anywhere." Nina motioned towards her pregnant belly. Matthias smiled a small smile and was out the door.

They, Nina and Matthias, had talked with their neighbor, Ilse, about how to deliver the baby. Ilse was a medic who said to get her when Nina's water broke. 

Nina sat still after Matthias had left. She knew he would be back in only a few minutes, but she had an irrational fear that he would disappear into the snow. 

Fjerdans had a tradition that men were not allowed in the birthing room. It was a women's job, therefore a women room only. Days before the woman gives birth, the men of the house would leave for an extended hunting trip. By the time they returned, the baby would be born. The man would come back and offer the woman the skin of an animal or some wild meat in exchange for a healthy child. 

Nina told Matthias she did not want him to leave. She told him she wanted him in the room when the baby was born. 

Matthias had paled, yet agreed. Nina couldn't help but wonder if he even knew how babies were born. 

Nina heard the front door open, then the shuffle of snowy boots on the floor. She heard Matthias baritone, and relaxed. 

Ilse came into the room, Matthias behind her. She was an old woman, perhaps in her seventies. Her skin had lines of many years on it. Her hair had long gone gray. She was so skinny Nina often wondered how she could trudge through snow and wind without being blown away. 

"Alright, girly," Ilse rasped. "Are you ready for the most extreme pain you've ever faced?"

Ilse had seven kids of her own, Nina knew. She, Ilse, also claimed to have helped women give birth more times than she could count.

Nina nodded rapidly. "Yes." 

Nina was ready. She was ready to meet the baby that had caused her months of discomfort and strange food cravings. 

"Good," Ilse said, coming to the bed and propping more pillows up behind Nina. "Because you don't have a choice."

Ilse turned and stared at Matthias.

"What are you still doing here? Don't you blond oafs run off during the birthing?"

Ilse may have been half Matthias size, but she seemed to tower over him.

"I want to be here," Matthias said surely, his shoulders squared. Nina's heart fluttered. 

Ilse raised her eyebrows. "Then get beside her, she'll need you. And you," She turned back to Nina as Matthias grabbed Nina's hand. "You spread your legs."

* * *

The pain was ceaseless, worse than trekking through the snow, covered in ocean water, worse than _jurda parem,_ worse than anything Nina could ever even imagine. 

She screamed as hard as she could, determined to not only get the baby out of her, but to let the whole village know that Nina Helvar was having a child. 

Her hand crushed Matthias'. She had never gripped onto anyone as hard as she did while she was pushing the baby out, not even as she dangled over the cliff in Fjerda. Nina was sure she also yelled some nasty things. She screamed Matthias for impregnating her. She yelled at Ilse just to cut the baby out. She was desperate for relief. 

Sweat trickled down her face and neck, her hair clung to her skin. The freezing cold outside suddenly seemed too hot. 

"One more, Nina!" Ilse yelled from between her legs. 

"I can't!" Nina yelled without thinking. Tears streamed down her face. 

Ilse yelled something else, but Matthias's voice took over Nina's senses.

"Yes, you can, Nina." He said, his face close to hers. His free hand stroking the wet hair out of her face. He was as pale as the snow outside. "You're the strongest person I know. You can do this."

Closing her eyes, screaming loud, Nina pushed one more time. Then, like church bells in the morning, a baby's cry sounded throughout the room. 

Nina slumped, opening her eyes as the pain ebbed.

"It's a girl!" Ilse cried.

She watched Matthias cut the umbilical cord with shaky hands. Ilse wrapped a tiny blanket around the little body. 

Nina did not process her movements, she just held out her hands making grabbing motions at Ilse, until her daughter was finally placed in her hands. 

Nina cried. Sobbed. Tears streamed down her face as the baby's cried subsided after being placed in her mother's arms. 

"She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," Nina said through tears. She felt Matthias' strong arm around her as he kissed her sweat-covered forehead. 

"Yes," He whispered. "She is."

Nina hiccuped, not removing her eyes from her daughter. She had a tuft of Nina's brown hair on her head. "Our little Rosa."

Nina and Matthias had decided on the name months ago. 

"Do you want to hold her?" Nina asked.

Matthias said nothing in response but simply held out his arms. 

It was the strangest yet most beautiful sight ever: Big Matthias holding little Rosa. She practically disappeared in his arms. 

Matthias knealed down beside the bed, next to Nina, with Rosa in his arms.

"She's perfect," He said in a low whisper. "You're perfect," He said to Nina. "I never thought my life would go like this. I'm so glad it did." He smiled, a toothy smile that was just as rare from Matthias as it was beautiful. "I've never been happier."

Neither had Nina. 


End file.
